The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Interconnected processes are processes that have more than one autonomous participant and where one process must be completed before another can progress. Each participant in the interconnected processes is responsible for performing one or more action. Interconnected processes slow or fail when a participant has not performed an action required of it. Stated another way, computer-executed operations are interconnected when a particular operation depends, for accurate execution or for execution at all, upon previously completing another computer operation or previously receiving a set of data. When the processes fail, unnecessary resources are consumed to provide a cure and resume at least one of the interconnected processes.
For example, invoice processing is an interconnected process that has at least two autonomous participants: a vendor computer and a buyer computer. When an invoice is generated and sent by the vendor computer, the buyer computer can process the invoice and send payment. However, if a vendor computer fails to provide a correct payment address, the buyer computer is unable to process the invoice and send payment. Thus, unnecessary resources are consumed by the buyer computer to request the correct payment address and by the vendor computer to provide the correct payment address before the buyer computer can send a payment.